The present invention relates to a disc changer device that houses a plurality of optical discs (hereinafter, referred to as a “disc”) serving as information recording media, such as CDs (compact discs) and DVDs (digital versatile discs), and carries out a recording and/or reproducing operation on a disc selected from the discs, and more particularly to a tray carry-out mechanism that carries a tray to be transported with a disc mounted thereon from a stand-by position in the device to a disc exchange position.
Conventionally, as this type of disc changer devices, those devices that house and transport discs in a chassis that forms an outer frame of the device by using a plurality of trays have been known. In this disc changer device, those trays are stacked in a device-thickness direction that crosses at right angles with the main face of the disc, and arranged so as to be respectively moved in a device-depth direction that is in parallel with the main face of the disc. The disc changer device is designed so that each tray can be transported in the device-depth direction among a stand-by position at which a plurality of trays are housed in the chassis, a disc recording/reproducing position at which a recording or reproducing operation of information signals is carried out on a disc placed on the selected tray and a disc exchange position at which the tray is allowed to protrude outside from the chassis so that a disc can be placed on the tray or taken out from the tray.
With respect to the disc changer device having the above-mentioned structure, for example, those devices disclosed in International Publication No. WO/2007/046514 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-18934 (Patent Document 2) have been known.
In the device of Patent Document 1, the discharging process of the respective trays from the stand-by position to the disc exchange position is carried out by carrying out all the trays simultaneously. In the device of Patent Document 2, on the other hand, the discharging process of the respective trays from the stand-by position to the disc exchange position is carried out by utilizing a main tray that is prepared separately from a sub-tray on which a disc is placed, and holds the sub-tray so as to be moved.